Russian-Chinese cooperation on the environmental protection should be regarded as an example of international environmental cooperation to emulate, Director of the International Cooperation Department of the Russian Natural Resources Ministry, Nuritdin Inamov, who heads the Russian delegation at the third BRICS environment ministers’ meeting.

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“We regard environmental cooperation with China as exemplary and are working very hard, showing, including to our BRICS partners, that Russian-Chinese cooperation is one that should be followed,” he stressed. “We’ve got a whole number of common mechanisms in various spheres, such as an environmental subcommittee under the committee that prepares regular meetings for heads of states, that [the subcommittee] includes working and expert groups.”

Inamov reiterated, as an example, that Russia and China regularly monitor key bodies of water, such as the Amur and Argun boundary rivers and Lake Khanka. The parties also cooperate on biodiversity projects.

“We have built a mechanism for environmental emergencies cooperation. Thank God, we haven’t used it yet and there is no need to use it, but we conduct exercises from time to time in order to keep this huge mechanism ready,” the source said. “When we check the quality of water together with Chinese experts, it helps us to identify the source of contamination and decrease the impact on the environment.”

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As the delegation’s head pointed out, Russia is actively developing environmental cooperation both with China and through multilateral platforms: the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Belt and Road Initiative.

The third meeting of the BRICS environment ministers started on June 22 and will end today in Tianjin (North China). Its focus is to galvanize the common fight against the global climate change and provide successive implementation of multilateral environmental agreements, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.